In order to get a cross-dimensional date with an hourly wage of 500 yuan, beauties are flocking to Xiaohongshu and Xianyu to take orders

There is a dating method that is very popular among young people now, that is, cosplay commissions. COSERs receive commissions, play the two-dimensional characters that the client wants, and go on dates with the client. So, what can we see behind these cross-dimensional dates? Let's take a look at the author's interpretation.

When Li Zeyan, wearing a neat suit, lightly pulling his tie, walked through the crowd and waved to her from afar, Su Yue felt the long-lost female hormones in her body clamoring wildly.

After the two approached, Li Zeyan handed her the bouquet in his hand, gave her a big hug, and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "Stupid, I missed you so much."

During the whole day of the date, Li Zeyan and Su Yue held hands, went to the movies, ate hot pot, took many sweet photos while shopping, and kissed through masks in the crowd.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye. Li Zeyan touched Su Yue's head, with a nice smile on his lips, and said to her, "Well, sister, I've shipped it on Xianyu. Don't forget to click to confirm receipt. You're welcome to make an appointment with me next time."

In fact, this order summoned "Li Zeyan" from the two-dimensional game to a date in the three-dimensional reality. Su Yue paid 1,000 yuan to this "Li Zeyan", who was just an ordinary COSER who made money by relying on this date, and was also a girl.

Nowadays, this way of having an offline date with your two-dimensional "husband" through cosplay has become a very popular "new type of dating" among young people, that is, cos commissioning.

I pay you money, and you dress up as "him" to fulfill my dream; you earn money, and become my paper husband for one day, and obey me. Even if these requests are holding hands, hugging or even kissing, you need to cooperate with me to complete them.

Because this is not a two-way love, but a deal that was struck instantly.

Precisely because of these occasional physical contacts, in the cosplay commissioning culture circle, tall, well-defined female COSERs are more popular, while male COSERs are basically excluded.

Now, this seemingly niche cultural circle has gradually shown signs of breaking out.

On platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Xianyu, COSERs have shown their most charming appearances to "attract customers". Male protagonists of otome games such as Li Zeyan and Qi Sili are their first choice, and Japanese anime characters such as Gojo Satoru and Hayakawa Aki are also the choice of many COSERs. They clearly mark their prices, with hourly wages ranging from dozens to hundreds of yuan. The hourly wages of COSERs commissioned by top cosplayers are as high as 400-500 yuan, and some have even been booked two months in advance.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

All in all, the daily salary of these top COSERs can reach 3,000 yuan or even higher.

In Su Yue's words: "A man can't give me love, but a paper husband can give it to me. As for money, it is not that important compared to this kind of emotional sustenance."

1. A “great face” can have a price tag

However, if you want to earn money from cosplay commissions, you must first have a "great face".

Before dating "Li Zeyan", junior student Su Yue had sought cosplay commissions twice. Each time, she would carefully select cosplayers on Xiaohongshu and Xianyu, and only those cosplayers who looked good in raw photos and were willing to provide unretouched photos could become candidates.

"In the cosplay commission circle, faces are products with a clear price tag. Great faces are the passport to making money, and ugly ones are naturally ignored," Su Yue said. "They have already spent money, and no one wants to let their eyes suffer."

She told AI Blue Media about her first commission experience:

"That time, I found a cosplayer with a 'great face' through a friend's introduction. When the appointed time came, he would speak to me in the tone of the character, touch my head, praise me for looking beautiful today, hold my fingers, and pamper me in every way. This feeling made me feel that my paper husband had really come into reality and gave me an emotional sustenance." Su Yue said, "Until we separated, I felt a strong reluctance, as if I was really going to say goodbye to my lover. This may be the charm of cosplay commissions."

Young people are willing to spend their time and money for this dreamlike emotional sustenance and love experience.

Image source: Xiaohongshu blogger @小小的小兔团儿

Similarly, in order to fulfill the dreams of these single owners, the girls who do COS commissions are also constantly improving their skills, practicing various love techniques, and learning more ways to seduce girls like "paper husbands".

Fang Ling is a cosplay enthusiast. In March this year, the 21-year-old used her spare time to follow the trend and became a commissioned cosplayer. So far, she has received nearly 20 orders and earned a total of about 10,000 yuan.

Since she is a new COSER, she set her price at "50 yuan/hour, 400 yuan for a day, minimum three hours", which is a medium price in the COS commission circle. In order to attract more clients, she followed online tutorials to continuously improve her makeup skills, and was so meticulous that she even shaded her non-existent Adam's apple, and studied the makeup of many different characters.

She is 170cm tall, and in order to give the single owner a better experience and give herself more competitive chips, she also noted in the introduction: it can be padded up to 180cm, and the shoulder width can also be padded.

Apart from this, involution is everywhere.

At first, she didn't put too much energy into this sideline of cosplay commissions. She only studied three characters carefully and the commission time was less than 5 hours a day. But later, more and more COSERs poured in, and players continued to break through the circle. In the face of business opportunities and interests, she chose to extend her "receiving customers" time and expanded the number of characters she could cosplay to 10.

"At first I did it for love, but now I treat it as a profitable sideline," Fang Ling said. "With profit, who cares about love?"

Of course, this side job also brings her experiences that are hard to come by even in a relationship: just by showing her face and buying some props for cosplay, the host can treat her to a meal, invite her to a movie, and even have her travel expenses reimbursed. This almost zero-cost contribution gives her the motivation to continue taking cosplay commissions.

However, every time she separated from her boyfriend and took the subway home alone at night, she couldn't help but wonder if she was creating dreams for others or wasting her own time when she saw passers-by looking at her cosplay makeup with either surprise or ridicule.

2. After the wild growth, the platform wants to set rules

An conceivable fact is that for players, a successful cos commission is not only to record the beautiful scene in their hearts, but also to post this date on the Internet.

On Bilibili, there are more than 1,200 videos related to cos commissions.

Among them, the video with the highest number of views is only 127 seconds long, but it has received more than 3.4 million views and 332,000 likes. Many netizens expressed their doubts about the cosplay commission in the comment area, and some netizens gave a variety of comments, such as "If I had this when I was a kid, I would have commissioned a Doraemon at least", "The ability of the commissioning teacher is getting more and more competitive"...

High level of discussion and large amount of traffic are the common features of niche hobbies before they break out of the circle.

At the same time, as platforms for posting orders and receiving orders, Xiaohongshu and Xianyu have also become important battlefields for cos commissions to break the circle.

On Xiaohongshu, there are more than 70,000 notes related to #cos委委#. Many COSERs have posted their makeup and dating records to win the favor of players. They are based on different criteria such as appearance, region, fame, etc. Most of them have hourly wages ranging from 50 to 400 yuan. In order to attract players, some will also add that they can provide "language service", "are doll catching masters", "nine-head body shape looks good in photos", etc.

Sure enough, when it comes to pleasing women, no one can compare to women.

In addition, Xianyu has also become a place for many COSERs to receive orders.

However, in the eyes of many players, the quality of COSERs on Xianyu is not high and disputes often occur. Some players report that they often encounter situations where the product does not match the actual product, and examples of running away from and canceling orders also often occur on Xianyu.

Obviously, cos commissions are still in a state of wild growth in the early stages of development. The lack of unified norms and standards makes it difficult for both parties involved to obtain protection, and "basic trust between people" has once again become the weight of the transaction.

Of course, there are also platforms that try to step forward and set the standards.

We have to mention Weidian again here.

After becoming the "paradise" in the hearts of Generation Z with cotton dolls and idol peripherals during the idol economy era, Weidian has now turned its target of conquest to cosplay commissions.

On July 17, Weidian officially launched the "cos commission" business. On the "Second Dimension" tab page of Weidian, the cos commission business has occupied the center position of the page.

Clicking the button, many COSERs have linked themselves to the site, with prices similar to those of COSERs on Xiaohongshu and Xianyu. Weidian also provides these COSERs with more vertical label services, such as "search by role", "search by price", etc. According to the APP, many COSERs' links have dozens or even hundreds of "wants", and the transaction volume generated is not difficult to estimate.

Although Weidian specifically noted that "we will not deduct commissions in the middle and it is a free entrustment platform", the potential transaction volume and traffic are not low. This is also the consistent style of Weidian after turning the platform into a "number one player".

In any case, what is certain is that, whether it is a platform or an individual, the niche hobby of cos commissioning has gradually left a mark in the hearts of young people and has become a new way of socializing.

Next, it depends on the competition among platforms.

Author: Yan Ye; Editor: Wei Xiao

Source public account: AI Lanmeihui (ID: lanmeih001), a well-known new media reporting on AI and Internet industries.